Latin America

Peru's Economy and Finance Minister Alfredo Thorne said Thursday his country is set to record a growth of 4.8% as next year's budget was passed. Private investment in areas such as infrastructure will be the key.

Otto was by Thursday a dangerous Category 2 hurricane on a sparsely populated stretch of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, while heavy rains from the storm were blamed for three deaths in Panama this week.

Mexican cement manufacturer Cementos Chihuahua expressed its interest in becoming a supplier for the construction of the border wall between Mexico and the US which has been announced by US President-elect Donald Trump during his campaign.

Argentine foreign minister Susana Malcorra thanked her Panama peer Isabel de Saint Malo for the standing historic support from Panama to Argentina´s sovereignty claim over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, (under UK control), and looked forward to strengthening the excellent bilateral relations, according to an official Wednesday release from San Martin Palace.

Colombia's government and FARC guerrillas will sign a new peace accord on Thursday, after a previous agreement to end their half-century-old war was defeated in a referendum, both parties said. The new, revised accord will be submitted to Congress for approval, rather than put to another referendum, they added.

The top prosecutor in Brazil's biggest ever corruption investigation has called on the public to rally around the operation in the face of attempts to shut it down. There are fears that Congress while passing anti corruption measures would also include in an unofficial amnesty for existing cases.

The President of Colombia made the announcement Monday following an urgent trip to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, US, on his doctors' advice last week due to disturbing test results that would indicate a relapse of his prostate cancer which was removed surgically in 2011.

President Tabare Vazquez said on Monday that Uruguay recognizes the government of president Michel Temer, respects the decisions of Brazil emerging from its political situation and admitted considering giving asylum to Brazilian politicians, if contemplated under International Law.

Due to an unprecedented drought and to other man-caused factors, the country is suffering from water scarcity in five of its nine departments. La Paz's three main dams are almost dry and the city's residents have seen their taps go dry for up to 60 consecutive hours.

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski brought the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to a close in Lima on Sunday with a message against protectionism and awareness that the meeting was held “at a key moment in the world's economic history.”